


waffles, friends, work

by Izzi456



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Parks and Rec AU, but also some nia/brainy, i just really love parks and rec, idk - Freeform, kara/james, maybe kara/lena, mostly sanvers, parks and recreation AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-29
Updated: 2019-06-24
Packaged: 2019-09-02 02:34:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16777930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Izzi456/pseuds/Izzi456
Summary: Deputy Director of the Parks and Rec department Maggie Sawyer challenges bureaucracy, makes some very unexpected friends, and builds a team and a family along her way to, hopefully, the top.aka: the sanvers-centric parks and rec au no one asked for





	1. The Master Plan

**Author's Note:**

> i just really love Parks and Recreation. it's my all-time favorite show. and alex as the grumpy but nerdy ben wyatt-type character is too good to pass up on. so...here you go :)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maggie's park plans are put on hold by two state auditors.

“In the words of the great artist Frida Kahlo, ‘Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?’ And with those words ringing in our ears, we proudly present our plan for a new park on municipal lot 48.”

“That’s good,” James said, leaning back into his couch.

Maggie hugged her behemoth of a binder closer to her chest and smiled. “I know.”

Maggie had worked so hard on The Master Plan for fifteen months. It would’ve been thirteen if James had agreed to work on weekends, but oh well.

It was mostly filled with boring bureaucratic crap, but Maggie knew how to make it sparkle. As sparkly as a budget and planning proposal could be, anyway.

“To feel the anguish of waiting for the next moment and of taking part in the complex current not knowing that we are headed toward ourselves, through millions of stone beings—of bird beings—of star beings—of microbe beings—of fountain beings toward ourselves.”

“Wow, you wrote that?”

“No, Frida Kahlo. Again.” Maggie pursed her lips. “Are there too many Frida quotes?”

“Uhh…no. No. Just the right amount.”

Maggie rolled her eyes at James overly cajoling tone. 

James stood up and held onto her shoulders. “But that is easily the most entertaining budget proposal I’ve ever heard, Maggie. They’re going to love it.”

“I hope so. ‘Cause if this thing flies, then we are getting money to build that park.”

James smiled back at her and held out his fist out for a bump, which Maggie gladly provided.

She and J’onn were presenting The Master Plan tomorrow at the city government’s yearly budget meeting. And Maggie had a three-hundred-page folder filled with numbers and graphs and charts and more than enough reasons for them to sign off on it.

They were gonna get this park, even if it drove Maggie crazy in the process. What was the point of working in the government, and specifically the Parks and Recreation department, if she couldn’t even build one damn park in this town?

This small little town of Pawnee, Indiana, that needed a bit (read: a lot) of work. But Maggie loved it anyway.

***

“Ladies and gentlemen and everyone in between or outside of those tight little gender boxes they like to put us in, final warning. _Do not miss_ tonight’s party at Dollywood.” Winn hopped around, handing out flyers to everyone in the office as if he hadn’t told them about it five hundred times already. “The place the Pawnee Journal has called the sexiest, most dangerous club in town.”

“Did they pay you or something? To say all of this every day for the past two weeks?”

Winn spun around and pointed a finger at Lucy. “Yes. Well, no. I mean sort of. They’re giving me and all the hot people I’m inviting a discount for the cover charge. So I’ll reap the benefits later,” he said, waggling his eyebrows.

“Ew, gross.” Lucy shuddered, and Winn stuck his tongue out at her.

Maggie stuffed the pamphlet in her back pocket. “Guys. That’s not important right now.” Sometimes it felt like she was running a circus of children around here. “J’onn and I are going to the most important meeting of our lives—”

“Oh boy, here we go,” Lucy said under her breath.

Maggie ignored her. “And there will be champagne when we return with a signed proposal.”

 _That_ seemed to make Lucy happy.

Maggie looked around for someone to leave in charge, and, of course, the only one she semi-trusted around here…

“Nia,” Maggie said with a sigh, rapping her knuckles against the wood of the desk. “Wake up.”

Nia’s head whipped up, her eyes widening as she noticed everyone staring at her. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry.”

“That’s the third time this week.”

“I know, I’m sorry! I don’t know what’s happening. I guess I’m not getting enough sleep or something.”

Nia looked so frantic as she grabbed at the papers scattered around her desk that Maggie took pity on her. Again.

“Well, you’re in charge,” Maggie told her. “So, try and stay awake.”

“Yes, of course. I will not be sleeping. Don’t worry.”

Maggie turned to close the door to her office and crossed Nia’s desk to get to J’onn’s office. “J’onn? You ready?”

She heard a grunt from inside and only had to wait about a minute for J’onn to get up.

“Another government meeting?” he asked when he saw the binder in Maggie’s arms. He crossed his arms over his chest. “Oh joy.”

“This is not just _any_ government meeting, J’onn,” Maggie started to say, and J’onn just walked out of the room as Maggie trailed behind him. “It’s important!”

“You say that about every meeting.” J’onn turned into the hall. “I can guarantee you that no government meeting you will or will not attend will be important.”

Maggie didn’t know why she tried—she’d never convince him to agree with her about this. “Whatever. At least they have good snacks.”

“That is true.”

Luckily, the Pawnee city council tended to splurge on snacks for the big yearly meetings and J’onn got first dibs on anything not fruit or vegetable related, which occupied him for a bit until the meeting started.

Maggie sat down between the woman she knew from the sanitation department and that other guy from education, her thumb between the correct pages of her binder ready to open just in case she got to present first.

The head councilman Paul went up to the front without an agenda or anything in his hands, which struck Maggie as strange. And she found out why a moment later.

“Now, I know you all have proposals you’d like to present, but we’re not hearing any today. Due to the crippling gridlock in city council we are postponing all planning and spending decisions indefinitely.”

“Um…until when?” Maggie asked.

“Indefinitely,” he repeated.

“And when will that end?”

Paul gave her a look. “Later than now.”

“So, like, this week, probably?” Indefinitely? That was…impossible.

He sighed. “Look, we are bordering on a full-blown crisis, Maggie. The state government is sending a team from Indianapolis to try and solve this budget problem.”

Maggie’s heart flip-flopped as a murmur spread around the room. He was serious. _This_ was serious. 

“You know,” Paul said, “on second thought we probably shouldn’t have bought all these snacks.”

J’onn, who had been smiling before at the councilman’s words, got up to stuff a few more cookies in his pocket before they could take them away. Maggie was stuck in her seat, trying to wrap her head around this.

She had plans. For everything.

Page seventy-eight: in the event The Master Plan meeting was cut short. Page one hundred and two: in the event that she had laryngitis and couldn’t present The Master Plan. Page one hundred and five: in the event The Master Plan meeting was moved onto a boat.

She had a something for every situation. Except for one where there was no Master Plan.

Back in J’onn’s office—Maggie couldn’t even remember getting there, she’d been so angry—Maggie slammed her binder down on his desk.

“Calm down, Maggie. You don’t know what they’re doing to do.”

“They’re state auditors, J’onn, they’re not going to come and pat us on the back. They’re here to slash and burn.”

And she wasn’t going to have a chance to get her park. She was going to have to wait even longer. Everything her and James had been working for was for this park. The start of their friendship was because of this park.

Maggie clenched her jaw as J’onn smiled. Maggie knew he was happy about this. He hated the government and everything about it. 

“Well, I’d be fine with that.”

“Of course you would. But I’m not,” Maggie reminded him. “The government is supposed to spend money, provide services. That’s what it _does_.” And yes, she knew most of it was corrupt and despicable, but if she was a part of it, then she could make sure it would spend money on _good_ things, for good people. “These guys are going to try and eliminate everything we do. We have to fight them!”

“They’ve been sent by the government. They outrank all of us. There’s no fight to be had here.”

Maggie groaned. She hated that he was right. But she was going to try and fight them anyway.

“For now,” J’onn said as he stood up and steered Maggie away as if he knew exactly what was going on in her mind, “go back your office and we’ll wait for them to show up.”

Maggie grumbled out a, “Fine.”

She was already coming up with plans, reasons, anything to convince them that they had to get the council back up and running as soon as possible. If she couldn’t do anything, then what even was her job? Doing nothing?

Doing nothing was _not_ in Maggie’s vocabulary.

***

That afternoon, J’onn came out of his office looking a bit too happy. “Paul just called, they’re on their way.”

Maggie nodded and took a deep breath in, trying not to pace. It would be fine. It _had_ to be fine. Eventually.

She’d fix this all herself if she had to.

“They’re going to fire people, aren’t they? Ugh, and I was so close to getting a raise!” Winn exclaimed.

“Okay, first of all, no one’s getting fired. Hopefully,” Maggie added. “And second of all, no you were not.”

Winn pouted and sat back down on Lucy’s desk as he never seemed to be at his own. “It was worth a try.”

Maggie surveyed the room. Nia, Winn, and Lucy looked pretty nervous, so Maggie tried to help although she was sure her fake positivity wouldn’t seem real enough. She wished James were off work by now and that he could be here. He’d be able to make them calm down. For now, she was the one who had to convince them that everything was going to be okay.

“Maybe they’re perfectly nice people, very willing to help us. You never know who—”

“Hello, hello!” a voice came from the hallway.

Maggie spun around and saw two women in business suits walk through the door. One was blonde with a big smile on her face, waving her hand, practically bouncing into the room. The other was, well…the opposite. Reddish-brown hair cropped to her chin, a no-nonsense expression that gave Maggie butterflies—and she was pretty sure it wasn’t the good kind—as she seemed to be surveying the office, a very sleek briefcase in her hand.

The blonde one spotted Maggie and J’onn first, and Maggie tore her eyes away from the woman’s partner.

“Hi! I’m Kara Danvers, and this is Alex,” she pointed her thumb back, “my sister and accounting partner in crime.”

Maggie flicked gaze between them. Sisters.

She never would’ve guessed.

Alex finally seemed to notice them but didn’t even smile back at what Maggie thought was a pleasant smile she had on.

J’onn stuck his hand out. “I’m J’onn J’onnz, Director of the Parks Department. And this is Maggie Sawyer, Deputy Director.”

Kara shook both their hands enthusiastically. “It’s so great to meet you both.”

Maggie was feeling a bit better about this already. Someone this nice couldn’t be too horrible, right? “Would you two like a tour?” Maggie offered.

Alex tried to interject. “Um, no, we probably—”

“Yes, of course!” Kara exclaimed, ignoring Alex completely. “There is quite _literally_ nothing I would like better than to get a tour from you both.”

“Kara, we have to get started,” Alex said, a little more harshly this time. “You can do that later.”

And, surprisingly, Kara listened to her. She seemed to deflate. “Fine.” She turned to address everyone. “Alright, so, we are here from the state and budget office in Indianapolis. Now, what does that mean, you’re probably all wondering. Well, simply, we are here to tinker with your budget. Think of the government as a broken-down carousel.” She was waving her hands around while saying this, and Maggie glanced at Alex again. Alex was just beside her, eyes fixed on the ground, a little tensed up and not at all happy to be there. “We’re going to slap on a new coat of paint, and we are going to get those happy kids back up on their plastic horses where they belong.”

Maggie felt a bit more optimistic. This didn’t seem too bad.

“Now,” Kara continued, “Alex is going to stick around for a little bit, and I will see you all later.” She put a hand on Alex’s shoulder as she went around her. “Be nice, please.”

Alex let out a grunt that reminded Maggie very much of the ones J’onn was fond of.

And, just like that, Kara was gone.

Alex finally looked at J’onn and then Maggie again and gripped her briefcase. “Can I talk to you two alone?” she asked.

Maggie led Alex to their meeting room and they all sat down, J’onn and her across from Alex.

Alex started going through papers in her briefcase methodically, and it was much too silent. To the point where Maggie felt like blurting out the million questions she had in her mind. 

But she retrained herself, and instead studied the woman in front of her. Her very nice well-fitting suit had no wrinkles that Maggie could see. She’d only spoken about ten words since she’d got here, so Maggie really had nothing to go on about what kind of person she was, although she was already starting to get an idea.

That didn’t matter, though. They’d probably fix this all up pretty quick and get out of here and everything would be back up and running in no time.

Finally, Alex broke the silence. “I’d like to talk about where you think there’s waste within your department.”

Maggie almost laughed. “There is none,” she said. Alex and J’onn seemed skeptical about that.

“What exactly will you be cutting? And how much of it?” J’onn asked.

“Well, let’s start with personnel. Can you tell me about…” Alex flipped over a paper. “Nia Nal?”

Maggie leaned forward and looked out the window. Nia was currently asleep—again—her forehead resting on the keyboard of her computer. _Shit_. Maggie caught Winn’s eye and tried to silently communicate with him to wake her up before Alex saw.

“Oh, well, she’s great,” Maggie quickly said when she noticed Alex start to follow her line of sight. “Always working hard. Always, you know, ready for action. Really bright, high-spirited. Everyone loves her.”

A smile that didn’t seem completely genuine crossed Alex’s face and disappeared a moment later. Then, she started talking to Maggie almost as if trying to be nice about this, but it came off as anything but that.

“Okay, you need to understand that in order to keep this town afloat, we’re going to have to cut the budget of every department by forty or fifty percent.”

In between the ringing in Maggie’s ears, she heard J’onn let out an amused grunt.

“But Kara said that you just had to ‘tinker’ with things,” Maggie tried.

“Yeah, because that sounds a lot better than, ‘we’re going to gut it with a machete.’” Alex started to make marks on her paper.

Maggie clenched her jaw. Almost a year and a half of hard work on that plan for the park, wasted. And their jobs were going to disappear, too?

It was the way Alex was acting, the way she was talking about it, that was so…blasé. Maggie tried to hold back, she really did, but then…

“You’re a jerk.”

Alex lifted her head up. “Excuse me?”

“Maggie, easy—” J’onn tried to stop her.

Maggie held a hand up. “No. I don’t think you understand. These are real people, working in a real town. In a real building, with real feelings.”

Alex tilted her head. “This building has feelings?”

“Maybe. You don’t know. There’s a lot of history…” Maggie stopped when Alex looked amused. “How—How can you be so calm about this? You’re talking about cutting people’s jobs.”

“Because I didn’t cause these problems, Maggie, your government did,” Alex pointed out. Then, she closed her folders when Maggie couldn’t answer and stood up. “I’ll get the rest of what I need from these spreadsheets. Thanks.”

Maggie watched her walk away and get stopped by Winn on the way out of their department. Maggie leaned back in the chair, her arms crossed. 

Spreadsheets. She was going to get her information on which people to cut from their already very small department from _spreadsheets_.

Numbers couldn’t tell Alex about her team. 

Numbers couldn’t tell her everything about Lucy, who was a little dramatic and crazy at times, but they had a history. And Lucy was a hard worker when she needed to be. Winn was brilliant with computers, and he always knew how to fix Maggie’s problems and could make every meeting fun. And Nia was pretty new, but Maggie saw a lot of potential in her. So what if she needed a nap occasionally? She was a great assistant and willing to go above and beyond.

Good thing James didn’t work here; she didn’t have to worry about losing him. But cutting their department meant less man power for getting this park done, which she did worry about.

Maggie managed to catch James on the phone after he got away from the magazine and ranted to him for an hour about Alex, who bothered her a lot more than she thought for some reason, and everything that had happened that day.

“Well, Mags, we’re going to Winn’s club tonight, right? We’ll just drink and try to forget about it for now. You’ll think of something, I know it.”

Maggie sighed. “Yeah, I guess I can do that.”

“You promise we’ll have fun? And you won’t talk my ear off about politics?”

“Yes, fine. I promise.”

“Great. I’ll meet you there at ten.”

Maggie hung up and drove home to eat and get changed.

James was right, unfortunately. She’d come up with a plan to get Alex off her back and maybe write a new budget herself where they didn’t have to cut as much as Alex wanted to. And, if she had time, maybe five-page essays on all of her employees so that Alex couldn’t only rely on her stupid numbers and would be forced to read some actual _words_ for once.

Maggie shook her head to clear her thoughts. She shouldn’t be thinking about Alex and this whole mess right now.

Having fun was what tonight was going to be about.

And if she had to drink until she couldn’t remember that their park plans were being put on hold indefinitely and that their jobs were on the verge of becoming obsolete, then…well, she was gonna need a whole lot of drinks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know this was short, but please tell me if you liked it :) the other chapters will probably be longer. this is only the beginning :) hopefully


	2. Dollywood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maggie deals with Alex; James pieces together a romantic mystery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dunno how regularly im gonna update this, but this is being posted cause i got work to do and this is preventing me from doing it. so...enjoy :)

Dollywood wasn’t very packed by the time Maggie arrived, but it was a Wednesday night, so that was to be expected. There weren’t many clubs in town, and _one_ non-straight club that was in renovation at the moment, but Maggie trusted Winn to pick a good one anyway.

“Maggie! Boss lady! You came!” Winn shouted when he spotted her, partly to be heard and partly, Maggie guessed, because he was already a bit tipsy.

“Yeah, well, I am not one to turn down what looks like a good party,” Maggie said with a shrug.

Winn beamed and grabbed her arm, pulling her into the chaos. “It’s an _awesome_ party. Although I did lose Lucy a while ago. She’s here somewhere. _J’onn_ even said he’d try to make it.”

“Really?” That was weird. Maggie had seen J’onn drink the occasional scotch, but he never came to parties. 

“Yeah! I know, I was as surprised as you. Anyway, if you see a guy in red pants, I’m looking for him. I already started phase one of my wooing process but haven’t been able to spot him again. So, if you could do a guy a favor…”

“I’ll keep an eye out.”

“Thanks, boss lady.” Winn patted her on the back, taking another sip of his drink. 

“Why do you keep calling me…never mind,” Maggie trailed off as Winn waved to someone and left her in the dust.

She did like parties, but she didn’t like being at them alone. 

She thought she might as well get a drink until James showed up. They needed to start soon as Maggie was already finding her thoughts wandering to things she did not want to be thinking about. 

It was when she was already almost done with her mojito that James sidled up next to her.

“Hey, where have you been?”

Maggie spun around and could already begin to feel the effects of the alcohol she’d drank maybe a little too fast. “Where have _you_ been? I’ve been drinking over here alone. I had to start a conversation with the bartender. Who does that?”

“I was on the couch over there. C’mon, it’s much more comfortable. And they bring you your drinks without you having to get up.”

“Wow, fancy.”

“I know right?”

Maggie followed James through the crowd and was thankful he was a pretty big guy. Big enough to part the way for them like the Red Sea or something.

“How many have you had so far?” James asked, and Maggie held up her glass. “Just the one? You’re gonna need at least three more. Four-Drink-Maggie is my favorite.”

Maggie rolled her eyes. “Maybe just three. I did want to get started on something tomorrow for wor—”

“Nope. Stop. No mentioning the ‘w’ word tonight. At all.”

“But—”

“It’s forbidden. We’re having fun tonight. And you said you wanted to forget, right?” James asked, reaching his hand out to someone to get her another drink.

“Yeah, I did,” Maggie grumbled and took another swallow of her first. The blue one James had just grabbed looked good. “You know, I hate it when you’re right.”

“So you hate me all the time?”

“Shut up.”

One-Drink-Maggie was fine. Two was just a lonely Friday night.

Three was usually when she was bordering on drunk and could get away with a mild hangover in the morning. 

And four, which she hit about an hour and a half later, still sitting—or, rather, slouching—on the couch, was when she needed a little help.

“God, how d’they make these things so comfy? You’d think they pack, like, _clouds_ in here.” Maggie pushed down on the cushions of the couch and heard James chuckle beside her.

It took _forever_ to get James drunk, but Maggie was happy ‘cause it usually meant he’d drive her home.

“Y’know I don’t hate you, right?” Maggie asked him, turning her head and immediately regretting it as the room shifted. She blinked and tried to look at James. “I mean,” she swallowed, “we’re like, really good friends. You came into that town hall meeting and you were like, ‘Hey, that pit behind my house sucks,’ and I was like, ‘So let’s build a park on it.’ And now we are. Slowly.”

“Yeah, I know, Mags. I was there.”

Maggie waved a hand and leaned back into the couch. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a _good_ good friend before. Well, I did, once. But that was garbage. I guess Winn and Lucy and Nia are my friends. But you and me, though,” she pointed between them, “we’re like pea pods.”

“Peas in a pod?”

“Mmhm, that one.” She took another sip. “And—Oh.”

She’d made the mistake of looking around the club, the flashing colored lights hurting her eyes. The music didn’t help either. But she’d seen Lucy dancing with some guy she didn’t recognize and even J’onn over by the bar. And then she spotted her—the woman.

Alex. The numbers lady with her fancy suits and fancy haircut.

She wasn’t wearing her fancy suit now. She was in regular clothes. Not skimpy party clothes, but still…regular. Like jeans-and-a-nice-top regular. It was weird.

Alex and her sister—Kiera? No, Kara—were at the entrance to the club, and the bouncer guy was moving the rope and letting them in. Maggie was trying to forget about the “w” word and all her frustration with everything that had happened today, but now the root of all her problems was here.

“What are they doing here?” Maggie finally asked aloud.

“Who?” James followed her line of sight. “Oh, is that—”

“That’s her. The robot. The accountant. That’s the jerk lady accountant that’s here to ruin all of our lives.”

It must’ve been Winn with his flyers. He must’ve invited them.

James laid a hand on Maggie’s arm. “Okay, I’m pretty sure she’s not—”

“Hey!” Maggie exclaimed, hopefully loud enough for them to hear over the music. She waved a hand and, thankfully, Alex looked her way.

James pulled Maggie back down onto the couch when she tried, and failed, to get up. “Um, Maggie, given your current state—”

“I need to talk to her. I wasn’t finished earlier. She just walked away. And now, see, she’s coming over.”

“Maggie—”

Maggie glanced back at James with a smile. “Calm down, I will be exceptionally professional. Or professionally exceptional.” Maggie thought for a second. “I will be both of those things. Dontcha worry.”

This was a great decision, despite the look on James’ face.

Maggie ran a hand through her hair and hoped it looked nice. She didn’t want to give Alex any reason to have the upper hand or whatever. She cleared her throat, handing her drink back to James in case she spilled it before facing the right direction.

And, oh, Alex was already here, without her sister. That was fast. She was right there in front of her. 

“Hey—”

“Hello,” Maggie said, sticking her hand out for Alex to shake it. See? She could totally be professional.

Alex awkwardly reached out, and her hand was really warm.

“Um, I kind of think we got off on the wrong foot earlier,” Alex then said. “So, I was just…I wanted to stop by. Winn invited me.”

She looked a little nervous. Or maybe she was just perpetually stiff and awkward. Either way…

“Yeah, well, save it, okay?” Maggie crossed her arms. She wouldn’t have gotten anywhere in life without defending herself. “I…I was gonna tell you something. I’ve been saving it all day.” Maggie shut her eyes for a moment. “Dammit.”

“Maggie—”

“Shh,” Maggie pushed her arm back until she felt James’ face. She was doing fine on her own. “I am perfectly exceptional, James.”

She heard Alex let out a breath that _almost_ sounded like a laugh.

Maggie shook her hair out of her face. She didn’t know if Alex was laughing _at_ her or not, but that didn’t matter.

“This…this is a party for me and my friends. And you’re trying to fire all of my friends. So maybe you should just, y’know, get outta here,” Maggie told her.

“I—”

“And I talked to everybody in this bar and they don’t want you here.”

“Oh no,” she heard James mumble under his breath.

“Everybody?” Alex asked. “That must’ve taken awhile.”

“Yeah, it did,” Maggie lied. There was no way Alex would be able to check if she did or not. She swallowed again. Why was her mouth so dry? She’d drank so much liquid. “You…you’re a cold, callous person. And you want to kill people with machetes.”

Alex nodded, an amused expression on her face. 

“And I’m going to make my own plan,” Maggie said before she could lose her train of thought again. “And it’s going to be way better than your plan. It’s going to blow you out of the water like a fish.”

“I—that’s…well…” Alex stuttered. Finally, Maggie had rendered her speechless. Alex ran a hand through her hair. “I guess I’ll leave you to that, then. I’ll see you tomorrow. Sorry for bothering you.”

“Yeah, okay,” Maggie said, leaning back into the couch. Alex turned away, almost defeated. Exactly as Maggie had planned.

Maggie took a deep breath in and let it out. That had gone a lot better than expected.

James patted her on the shoulder. “That…was very professional, Mags.”

Maggie smiled. “Thank you.”

***

Maggie put her forehead on her desk. It was so bright. And too early.

This is why she didn’t drink in the middle of the week. Why did she listen to James? She really needed some waffles right about now.

A knock at her door made Maggie groan and wrap her arms tighter around her head.

“What?” She managed to say, but it was muffled. She hoped it wasn’t J’onn. If it was, she was screwed. But she was the hardest worker in this office. She just needed five minutes to make her head stop spinning and she’d get started.

“How are you?” James’ distinct low tone somehow reached her ears.

“I feel like shit.” 

Maggie lifted her head up and blinked the light away.

“Well, you look like shit, too,” James commented.

Maggie glared at him. “Thanks.”

“But I brought coffee.” James lifted the cup in his hand and Maggie held her hand out for it. 

Maggie took a sip and smiled as she could feel it seeping into her veins. “You’re a life-saver. And a life-ruiner. Why do I let you convince me to do things?”

“Because I had today off and forgot how drunk you get. I shouldn’t have let you go for number five.”

Maggie agreed, but she’d kind of needed it. After Alex had shown up and they’d had that pleasant conversation, she’d downed the fifth drink and felt pretty good again. Good enough to dance at least, which she knew she had done ‘cause her feet were sore when she woke up.

“Also, I may have done something stupid last night. Or, well, the stupid thing was done to me.”

Maggie raised her eyebrows, taking another long drink of the coffee. “You? But you weren’t even drunk. What happened?”

“I may have made out with someone?” 

Maggie almost choked on her coffee. “James! What? Who? And what do you mean, ‘may have’?”

“I…okay,” James leaned a hand on the table by her office door. “It’s definitely, actually. I definitely made out with someone.”

Maggie folded her legs up on her chair. Work could wait.

“Who?” she asked again.

“I don’t actually know. But I do have her phone, ‘cause she gave it to me. She was pretty drunk, and we were dancing, and she thought it was a good idea. And, well,” James sifted through his pocket, and Maggie could barely contain her curiosity. “I can’t open it to see her name or anything ‘cause, y’know, passwords, but the picture on the lock screen—”

J’onn chose that moment to yell from his office. “ _Sawyer_. My office. _Now_.”

Maggie squeezed her eyes shut as James stuffed the phone back in his pocket. Why was everything so loud?

Maggie knew from the tone that she should probably go over there immediately, so she frantically scrambled off her chair and had to pause for a second to make sure nothing would come up. Once she felt fine, she ignored James’ look.

“We are finishing this conversation later,” Maggie said, pointing at James as she went past him. 

Maggie waved at Lucy and Winn, who were also looking pretty dead at their desks, as she passed through. Nia wasn’t even there yet.

“So,” J’onn asked once Maggie had settled into the chair he kept by his desk. “Did you have a good time last night?”

“Mm, not really,” Maggie said. It was useless to lie. She was too visibly hungover for J’onn to believe anything different. 

J’onn had his arms crossed over his chest. “Did you enjoy your second loud conversation with Alex?” he asked. “The state auditor who holds your very fate in her hands?”

“You saw that?” J’onn nodded, and Maggie took a deep breath as he started to pace. “She…she deserved it. She’s cold and unfeeling, and I yelled at her. So what?”

But even as she said it, she felt a bad feeling in her stomach. Maybe it was just her breakfast threatening to make an appearance, but she remembered asking, or rather telling, Alex to leave. And how her face had kind of fallen as she’d listened.

“Believe me, I’d like our government cut to the bone. But I can’t have you getting yourself fired because then I’ll have to take over your job and do twice the work. Go apologize,” he commanded.

“I…I was just expressing myself, loudly,” Maggie tried. “Forcefully. Drunkenly.”

J’onn raised his eyebrows. 

Maggie sighed. “Okay, I’ll go apologize.”

***

Maggie put her hands in her back pockets. She rarely went over to this wing of City Hall, and it took her forever to find Kara and Alex’s office as they’d been stuck in one of the corners of the building.

Their door was open, and she saw Kara drinking a huge peach-colored smoothie.

The side of the office she was on was a mess—papers everywhere, sticking out of every shelf available in this place.

Maggie stepped into the room when Kara noticed her and smiled.

“Maggie! Welcome,” Kara exclaimed. Maggie almost grimaced—still too loud. “You’re here early.”

Maggie glanced to her left and caught Alex’s eye before Alex focused back on her computer without a word. Maggie turned to Kara, hoping she’d think of something to say in the next minute to Alex that would make things better.

“Yeah, I—Woah, you have a lot of bottles there,” Maggie said as she noticed the large array of different sized pill and vitamin bottles on Kara’s desk.

“Oh, yeah, would you like a vitamin?” Kara asked. “B12? Evening primrose oil? Willow Bark? Magnesium?”

“Um, no thank you.”

“You sure? These are really good for hangovers,” Kara said as she held up a bottle and shook it. That bright big smile was back on her face as if it never really went away ever.

“Okay, yeah, maybe,” Maggie said with a laugh as she took one. 

“You’re probably wondering why I have all of these,” Kara then said.

Maggie shrugged. “Kinda.” She wasn’t one to pry, but…

“I like to take care of my body above all else,” Kara started to tell her, taking a vitamin herself. “Diet, exercise, supplements, positive thinking. Did you know that scientists believe that the first human being who will live one-hundred-and-fifty years has already been born?”

“Wow, no. I did not.”

“I believe I am that human being,” Kara told her, and the certainty in her voice made Maggie really believe she was.

“That also means she doesn’t drink very much, so when she does, she gets borderline blackout drunk. But she bounces back way too fast. It’s completely unfair.”

Maggie spun around to Alex, who had actually said words. The look on her face was…soft. And she was smiling at her sister—an actual smile.

Maggie didn’t even know she could smile. It suited her.

“You’re just jealous,” Kara countered. “If you’d take these like I tell you to—”

“I’m fine. I don’t want any of your weird voodoo medicine. I’ll reap the consequences of my drinking actions like everybody else,” Alex said with a pointed glance at Maggie as she finished, and Maggie gulped.

Now or never, she told herself. Get the apology over with.

“That’s…actually why I’m here,” Maggie said to get Alex to look back up from her keyboard. And she did. “I wanted to talk to you.”

“Great,” Kara said with a clap, and Maggie almost jumped. “I’ll go listen to ocean sounds and do some chin-ups while you two chat.”

“We’re not done with talking about what happened last night, Kara,” Alex yelled after her before she pulled headphones on.

“Yeah, yeah,” Kara answered as she hopped out.

And then it was just Maggie and Alex.

Alex seemed to revert back to her old self—or, well, the self that Maggie had seen yesterday. The smile was gone, and she was back in work mode. Maggie quickly did a sweep of Alex’s half of the office that was even more organized than her own bigger space. Which was saying something.

“So…” Maggie started to say, nervously running her hand through her hair. “I wanted to apologize.”

Alex started typing again, not meeting Maggie’s gaze. “Don’t worry about it.”

Maggie knitted her brows together. “No, but…what I said was out of line. Twice.” Alex finally looked up again. “And I was worked up because obviously you represent a threat to my department, and my team.”

“Your city council and your mayor are the threats to your department,” Alex told her, her tone stern. “We didn’t do anything to get you into this situation.”

Maggie ground her teeth together at Alex’s harsh unwavering attitude. She was still in charge of who was getting fired around here, and it seemed like she could give zero shits about any of them. “Okay, Alex, look, I don’t really appreciate your callous tone.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really,” Maggie fired back. “You may hold my fate in your hands, but I still think you’re a jerk.”

She would defend her people with everything she had, and she wasn’t going to let some stranger ruin all of their lives while not even feeling bad about it.

Alex sat back and tapped a pencil on her desk. She pursed her lips and was looking at Maggie like she was noticing something she hadn’t before. Or like she was figuring Maggie out. Either way, Maggie wasn’t sure if she liked it.

“Do you want to get a beer?”

Maggie blinked. “It—it’s ten thirty in the morning.”

“Yeah.” Alex put the pencil down and pushed herself out of her chair. “You seem like you could use a beer. C’mon.”

“I…okay,” Maggie stuttered out, wondering what was happening. 

But she followed Alex anyway. 

***

Nia didn’t come in until eleven, but Lucy sidled up to her desk as soon as she dropped down. Lucy was kind of bored as there wasn’t much to do with the whole impending budget cuts thing. Plus, Maggie was out somewhere, so she couldn’t bug her at the moment.

“Uh oh, what’s wrong?” Lucy asked as she saw Nia’s distinctly not-happy face.

Nia slumped back into her chair. “I met this guy last night, and we had a lot of fun. He even punched this other guy for me that was trying to feel me up.”

“Nice. I like him already,” Lucy said with a smile, trying to get Nia to mirror it. “What’s his name?”

“Well, I don’t actually know. His friends called him Brainy. I’m not completely sure yet whether that’s supposed to be ironic or not. But he was really nice, and I gave him my number and he hasn’t called.”

“God, I hate that guy.”

That got Nia to crack a smile. “You just said you liked him.”

“Yeah, but if he’s not calling you back then I hate him, on principle.”

“Maybe he’s doing that weird guy thing where they wait like two days to call, or even text. Why is that a thing?”

“No idea. Men are stupid.”

“Hey! I heard that!” Winn shouted from his desk. 

“And are you disputing it?”

Silence. Then, “No, I guess not.”

Lucy focused back on Nia. “If he doesn’t call you by the end of the week, let me know. I’ll track him down,” Lucy said with a wink.

“Thanks,” Nia said, knowing Lucy was completely serious. “I even told him I work here, so he has two ways to find me.”

“No excuses then. We’ll find this Brain-guy, don’t worry.”

***

“This actually tastes really good,” Maggie said as she put the beer back on the counter.

She and Alex were sitting catty-corner to each other at the bar at Dollywood, but it was much less hectic. Hardly a soul present except for them and the bartender and the one guy at a table who looked like he’d be drinking before noon.

“Mm,” Alex agreed as she took another drink of hers. “How’s your head?”

Maggie pursed her lips. “Mushy.”

Alex almost cracked a smile, and Maggie found herself wanting to make Alex smile like Kara could.

“I’m sorry that I yelled at you,” Maggie said again. “Three times now, I guess it is.” Alex was going to say something, so Maggie continued. “But I still don’t think you know anything about my department. Have you ever been a part of a government body before?”

At that, Alex dipped her head for a second, her hair falling forward. “Um, I have, actually. In a small town of Midvale, California?” 

Maggie tilted her head. She’d heard that name before.

She racked her brain but couldn’t come up with anything. “Why does that sound familiar?”

Alex just leaned her elbows on the tile, giving Maggie a look, waiting for her to get it. Whatever _it_ was, Maggie didn’t—

Suddenly, Maggie sucked in a breath as it hit her.

A corner of her mouth turned up as she looked at the woman next to her. No way.

“Oh, my god,” Maggie said slowly as this new information sunk into her brain. “ _You’re_ Lexie Danvers?”

Alex’s smile was pained, but she nodded. “The one and only.”

Maggie remembered the newspaper articles.

The articles about one Lexie Danvers, who, when she was eighteen, ran for mayor of Midvale. And she won.

Maggie almost laughed.

“It was a little bit of anti-establishment voter rebellion, I guess,” Alex started to tell her when Maggie was a bit too in shock to say anything. “Here’s the thing, though, about eighteen-year-olds—”

“They’re stupid?”

“Incredibly stupid,” Alex agreed. “So, I pretty much ran the place into the ground after two months and got impeached. But you probably knew that already.”

Maggie did know that. She’d read all those articles, too.

“Lexie” Danvers had had much longer hair than the woman sitting next to her now. But still the same color hair, and definitely the same face.

“Oh, you were so cute,” Maggie said, and suddenly remembered eighteen-year-old Maggie thinking that Alex was _very_ cute. Maggie caught a hint of pink rush to Alex’s cheeks as she rubbed at the back of her neck. Maggie quickly continued, “What was that song you played at the swearing-in ceremony?”

It didn’t take Alex long to answer. “‘Whoomp, There It Is.’”

Maggie threw her head back. “That’s it! That’s what it was. Oh man.” Maggie sighed. “God, I was so jealous of you.”

Alex shook her head. “You shouldn’t have been. I mean, in addition to my mom grounding me, it ended up kind of ruining my life. And now I’m…balancing budgets so that I can show my— show people I’m responsible and run for office again someday and not be laughed at, you know?” She took another drink. “You want to run for office in the future, right?”

She asked the question so casually it took Maggie aback. Mostly because she was right on the nose.

“Um…yeah.” Maggie wondered how she knew.

“Well, you have to be able to make decisions like this, Maggie. You have to be harsh. No one’s going to elect you if you don’t show them that you’re a responsible grown-up.”

Maggie ran her finger down the bottle in front of her. “Yeah,” she said under her breath.

Alex was surprising Maggie a lot in the past day. She wondered what else she didn’t know about her. But she wanted to know more. Alex was infinitely more interesting, now. Especially because Maggie had a feeling that Alex had a pretty hard shell to crack open. Like a pistachio.

It probably wouldn’t work if Maggie didn’t let her in a little bit, too.

“You know,” Maggie started to say, and Alex looked up again. “I’ve had people tell me that I care too much. And maybe that doesn’t make me harsh enough but…growing up non-white and non-straight in Blue Springs, Nebraska, really…it just gives you a different perspective.”

Alex’s eyes had widened the slightest bit, and she was staring at her now. Maggie watched for any kind of grimace or anything on her face. It was always a gamble in small towns like this, to tell people those types of things. When she didn’t see any kind of negative reaction, she kept going.

“I’ve had people tell me that I could never get into government. I had to get in through Parks and Rec because, let’s face it, no one really cares about us. We’re probably one of the first departments on your list to cut from, right?” Maggie didn’t wait for an answer. “But I found that I love it. Even the small things I get to do for this town are rewarding enough, for now. And I care about my team, I really do. And I know that you have to slash a lot of stuff, and people, but…maybe you could get to know them first. See them like how I see them. Not just as statistics on a spreadsheet. Before you make any final decisions.”

Alex was silent for a moment. Then, she nodded. “I can try to do that. If we have time.”

“That’s all I ask,” Maggie said, relieved.

Alex took another swig of beer. “You said last night that you had a plan of your own you were going to give me?”

“Um, yeah.” Maggie ran a hand through her hair. “It’s…almost finished. I kind of passed out at like two in the morning, so…”

“I figured,” Alex said. “You can come by later. Or if you have it at the meeting today.”

“Yeah, sure,” Maggie said, feeling better about this already.

This could work. _They_ could work together, possibly. With Kara. Maggie was more than willing to help in any way she could, so hopefully they could figure out how to keep everything afloat themselves if the council and the mayor couldn’t do it.

Alex tapped her fingers and then reached back for her wallet like she was going to pay. “Okay, well, we should probably—”

“Oh no, please,” Maggie reassured her, putting a hand on her arm to stop her and getting her own wallet out with a smirk. “Allow me, Miss Mayor.” She dropped her credit card on the counter dramatically as she sang, “ _Whoomp_ , there it is.”

Alex rolled her eyes but actually smiled this time at Maggie’s antics. “Alright. We’re done.”

***

Later, Maggie made sure all the papers in the folder were in the right order and grabbed J’onn and James, who, once he knew where they were going, wanted to join them for some reason.

“Cat’s calling me for some emergency article, but I can stay for a little bit.”

“You should probably go, James. Isn’t Cat kind of scary? I mean, I like that you’re here, it makes the work day much more fun. Especially with all of your drama, but still,” Maggie nudged him in the ribs and, of course, hit rock solid muscle.

“I think you’ll want me to come.”

Maggie gave him a weird look when he didn’t offer up anything else. “Okay…you gonna tell me why?”

They were just going to their meeting with Alex and Kara, nothing really special about it. Except that Maggie had finished her budget plan and was kind of excited to see Alex again. Just to give it to her, ‘cause she knew it was really good.

They sat on the couches outside the office. There was another meeting happening that was hopefully just finishing up.

“Uh, well, I think—” James started to say, that woman’s phone on his lap.

The door opened, and Kara was ushering out the head of the Sanitation Department, telling him he’d done a great job, but then she stopped in her tracks.

“Hey,” James said, sitting up.

Maggie looked back and forth between them. How did they know each other?

It took Kara a second to say anything. “Heyyyyy,” she said slowly like she was suddenly remembering something, leaning on the door frame. She must’ve gotten really drunk, like Alex had said earlier. “Wow, fancy this.”

Then, Maggie realized. _Kara_ was the woman he made out with?

Alex stepped out from behind Kara.

“Yeah. Listen,” James said as he stood up, “I have to go into work for a bit, but uh, I’d love to…chat. Can I call you?”

Kara furrowed her brow, and Alex looked just as excited as Maggie felt right now.

“You have my number?” Kara asked, glancing at Alex as if embarrassed.

“No, you couldn’t remember your number. But you gave me your phone,” James said, holding it up.

“Oh.” Kara smiled sheepishly and grabbed it from him, adjusting the glasses on her face. “That’s…great. Yeah, we’ll talk.” She turned to Maggie and J’onn. “We should probably start this meeting.”

She spun around and went back into the office, and Maggie heard Alex say, “We are talking about this later.”

Maggie stared at James. “We are _definitely_ also talking about this later. She’s the woman?” Maggie clarified, and James nodded with a smile. “Nice,” Maggie mouthed as she followed after J’onn into the sisters’ office.

Somehow, Maggie managed to focus on their meeting.

Her and J’onn sat across from Alex at the tiny circular table, Kara pacing behind her.

“This suggested plan reduces our overall budget by thirty-five-percent,” Maggie told Alex, who was holding her papers in her hand. Alex smiled, like she liked it. Like she thought it was really good, so far, which made Maggie happy. But it was a bit of sad smile, for some reason. “And it contains very practical, deep cuts to many of our services.”

She hadn’t liked doing it, figuring out what wasn’t extremely important, but it was necessary. Plus, it didn’t fire anyone from her team.

“Maggie, this is amazing,” Kara said as she walked back and forth, squeezing some sort of exercise toy in her hand. “But it’s moot.”

Maggie’s face fell, and she glanced at Alex, who now also looked grave.

“What? Why?”

“Our investigation has revealed that things in Pawnee are…” Kara paused. “Much worse than we anticipated.”

J’onn leaned forward. “Meaning what?”

“Well,” Alex said, clasping her hands together. “From what we found this afternoon…effective tomorrow morning, the entire government will have to be shut down until further notice.”

She was looking at Maggie as she said it as if concerned about how she’d react, but Maggie was numb.

“I’m sorry,” Maggie finally managed to get out, “ _what_?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)
> 
> there will be more of the other guys in the future chapters, i promise.


	3. Freddy Spaghetti

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maggie and Alex butt heads, again; Nia's romantic life may be looking up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so...hi. it's been almost 7 months. i know. i am aware.
> 
> but i just continued writing this chapter one day out of nowhere, and somehow it got done, and i am as surprised as you. if you don't remember where we left off, it's basically the end of season 2 of the show where the government is closing due to budget cuts. if you wanna reread the first two chapters, they're much shorter than this one (which got out of hand word-count-wise, idk how). 
> 
> anyway, happy reading :)

“Look, all I can say is that the parks are closed until further notice.”

Maggie tried not to grimace at the chorus of groans that followed that statement. She didn’t even want to look at J’onn, who was trying not to smile beside her.

Maggie had a love-hate relationship with these town hall meetings. She knew they were necessary—she wanted to hear opinions from the citizens of Pawnee—but sometimes these people made her lose faith in humanity.

“But school’s about to be out!” A white lady who looked like she’d ask for the manager at Target stood up from her seat. “What am I supposed to do with my kids all day? Keep them in my house? Where I _live_?”

Maggie sighed. “I don’t know what to tell you.”

Another woman stood up and put her hand on her son’s shoulder. “What about the kids’ concert on Sunday at Ramsett Park? The Freddy Spaghetti concert.”

“The concert is cancelled.”

The response was a mix of angry grumblings and everyone scraping their chairs back to head out. Maggie leaned back in her own chair, equal parts exhausted and relieved that they’d decided that the meeting was over.

“Well, I hope you’re happy,” she said once the place was empty.

J’onn didn’t smile, because he never did, but he looked content. “I am happy. I do not think we should be wasting taxpayer money.”

“It’s not a waste to provide fun for kids,” Maggie retorted, closing her binder.

She followed everyone else’s lead and went for the door, leaving J’onn in her wake. She tried to start thinking about what she was going to do instead of work. Which was not something she liked to think about.

Events in the park were the best times of summer—they always had stuff to plan, things to set up, no surprise rain showers to worry about. Only sweaty hormonal teenagers and bugs, but it wasn’t that bad. The parties and concerts they put on raised a good chunk of the money they needed annually for the Parks department. Mostly because City Council wasn’t willing to give them a big cut of their budget.

It wasn’t that much, anyway. They barely made enough to cover the costs, but they still did. Every year.

And now there was going to be nothing.

That didn’t even make sense. How could they hope to improve the budget if no outside money was coming in in the meantime?

Maggie got in her car and let out a huff.

If she could make everything they usually paid for free and really hammered in the fact that no more concerts would be put on if they didn’t raise enough money, then…

But that probably wasn’t possible.

Or…was it?

***

The key to getting what you wanted was to be confident and ready for pushback with logical counterarguments. 

Which was why Maggie marched right past the “Essential Government Employees Only” sign into Kara’s office the next day with, yes, a binder.

“Kara, hi,” she said, happy to see nobody else in there at the moment.

“Maggie Sawyer! Good morning.”

Kara’s upbeat attitude always threw Maggie off a bit—and the fact that she felt the need to say her full name almost every time they came in contact was just a little too weird—but she barreled through.

“Morning,” she said, and got right to it. “There’s a problem. A huge problem.”

Kara straightened up, looking genuinely concerned. “What is it?”

“The children of Pawnee aren’t going to get their concert on Sunday because all the parks are closed.”

“Oh,” Kara said, her face falling. “Well, we have to fix that.”

Maggie opened her mouth to refute whatever she thought Kara was _going_ to say but closed it again. Huh. So, she wanted the concert put on, too. This was going to be much easier than what Maggie had planned for.

“I—yeah. Yeah, we do. Great,” Maggie stammered out.

She was so used to having to deal with Alex that Kara was like a breath of fresh air. Not that Alex was _horrible_. She was just…stubborn.

Kara leaned her forearms on her desk as if she wanted to start discussing it immediately.

But they were interrupted by none other than the robot—with a few non-metal parts, as Maggie had learned—herself.

“Maggie,” Alex said, slightly amused. Maggie just smiled at her. “What a surprise. The government has been shut down for two days, and I get bombarded with fourteen meeting invites from you.”

“Yeah, well, you didn’t answer the first three, so.” Maggie shrugged.

Alex walked right on past her to her own side of the office. She looked stressed. But, also, when did she not?

“Alex, there was a big concert. And now there’s not,” Kara informed her. “Is there anything we can do about that?”

“Nope,” Alex replied, not even looking back.

Kara sighed. “Darn. That’s too bad. Sorry, Maggie.”

Maggie whipped her head around to Kara. “What? Wait, but—” 

“I have to go run ten miles. It’s part of my daily ritual and, to be honest, all of this is stressing me out too much. Sorry!” Kara picked up her running shoes from beneath her desk and was out the door before Maggie could say another word.

And she suddenly remembered why optimism by itself wasn’t always the best fuel for success.

“She comes and goes like that all the time,” Alex started to say. “You get used to it. Her brain is always in a million different places at once, so sometimes it’s like talking to a wall. A very fast-moving wall.”

Maggie was currently occupied with a hundred other things, and if she wanted this concert put on tomorrow, then they really needed to get started. And now she had to negotiate with _Alex_ , so that needed to happen as soon as possible.

Maggie nodded absent-mindedly and flipped through her binder. “Alex, we need to talk solutions.”

Alex sighed, and Maggie could’ve sworn she heard her mumble something about dealing with “two walls” before she said, “Maggie, Pawnee is broke. There’s no money for a concert, okay?” Maggie finally looked up. Alex had that please-don’t-argue-about-this look on her face that Maggie was beginning to get very familiar with. “Idaho had to cut their Parks Department by eighty-percent. And Idaho is…basically one giant park.”

Maggie put on a smile. “Alex, Pawnee is better than Idaho,” she said as if it was an indisputable fact. Which it was.

“No, it’s not. Pawnee is not special.”

Maggie kind of felt like she got punched in the gut. “Uh—” 

“And _your_ department,” Alex stood up, taking a step towards the flow chart she had on her wall of every department in their city government. She ran her finger from the top to the very bottom, “is allllllll the way down here.”

Maggie saw their square under “Other Services,” next to “Public Works” and “Misc.”

“It is not a priority,” she finished. Maggie shook her head, but Alex was not deterred. “And, frankly, you’re not even supposed to be in the building. You’re…non-essential.”

“That is not your call.”

“I know. It’s on your badge.”

Maggie glanced down. Okay, sure, her badge _did_ say non-essential. But she chose to ignore it.

“But you said…you said you’d try,” Maggie said, softening her voice a little bit. Arguing clearly wasn’t working, but there were always other ways. “You said you’d get to know my employees before you did anything. Or cut anything. That makes me think we’re not entirely non-essential.”

Alex pursed her lips and laid a hand on her desk. “I…” she scratched at her head. “I said that before I knew how bad this was. I—I don’t have time to…” she gestured to all the paperwork on her desk.

Maggie bit her cheek. So that was how it was going to be. 

She’d kind of thought they were making progress. They were supposed to working together, not against each other. But Alex wasn’t even willing to try anymore. 

Maggie snapped her binder closed before Alex could finish that sentence. “Got it. Just…let me know, next time, when you’re going to go back on your word, okay? I’d like a heads up.”

“Maggie—”

Maggie turned away without another word. “Whatever, Danvers,” she said with a half-wave behind her.

Maggie hugged her binder to her chest and wondered why all the words that came out of Alex’s mouth hurt so much. Maybe because she’d heard them before.

Pawnee was not special. Her department was non-essential. _Maggie_ was non-essential. Alex didn’t have time to care about them.

Maggie scoffed to herself.

Alex was wrong. About all of it. _That_ Maggie was sure of.

Now Maggie had to show her just how wrong she was.

***

Lucy ran into Maggie on her way out of City Hall, and she was grumbling something under her breath about Alex—who, frankly, in Lucy’s expert opinion, was not unattractive—and, “doing it anyway.”

“Hey, Mags, what’s up? I don’t usually see you walking _out_ of City Hall. Like, ever.”

Maggie snapped her head up as if she’d only now noticed that Lucy was practically right in front of her. She scrambled to stop in her tracks.

“Oh, sorry, yeah, I’m…fine. Well, actually,” Maggie clenched her fist, “I’m not fine. Alex is being…infuriating.”

“Mm, she’s seems to be the infuriating type.”

“Yes! Yes, she is. But, anyway…” Maggie shook her head to clear her thoughts. “What are you doing here? We’re not supposed to be here.”

“I came to find you. And you’re always here. Exhibit A,” Lucy said, gesturing towards her.

Maggie rolled her eyes. “I wanted to talk to Kara—”

“Ooh, the sister? She’s cute.”

“Don’t even try it,” Maggie warned. “James is already going after her.”

Lucy snapped her fingers. “Damn. Well, when it doesn’t work out, I’ll just swoop right in.”

That got Maggie to crack a smile, which made Lucy proud of herself. That woman was always pretty upbeat—about work, mostly. Not really anything else. Except waffles.

“Like always,” Maggie said. “But that’s not…what we should be talking about. I’m actually really glad you’re here.”

She started pulling sheets out of her binder, which was always Lucy’s cue to run as fast as possible, but Maggie was too quick for her.

“Mags, I was gonna see if Nia wanted to hang with—”

“That’s great, ‘cause we’re putting on the Freddy Spaghetti concert tomorrow,” Maggie continued, ignoring her. “I need you, Nia, and Winn to start—”

“Wait, wait, hold up. We’re putting on the concert?” Lucy asked. Maggie nodded. “The parks are closed.”

“So?” Maggie said. And Lucy should’ve expected it as it was her answer to basically everything. “We’ll figure it out. All we need to do is find a sponsor, a food truck or two that are willing to do it for free, a donation bucket, and Freddy himself. His real name’s Mike, right? He can play for, I don’t know, fifty bucks or something.”

“Did Alex sign off on this?”

“No.”

“Of course,” Lucy mumbled. Why would she think anything different? “You know, technically, I don’t have a job right now. I don’t work for you, at the moment.”

Maggie finally looked at her again. “C’mon, Luce. We’re friends.” She put on an over-dramatic pout.

“With benefits,” Lucy added with a wink. Two could play at this game.

Maggie’s expression shifted to what Lucy could only describe as disgusted. Which, rude. “That was _one time_ , Lucy. Years ago.” She shifted on her feet. “And we both agreed—”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m just reminding you of the best night of your life.”

“Lucy—”

“I’m kidding! God, I’m messing with you. I’ll…” Lucy sighed. She was going to regret this. “I’ll help.” Before Maggie could jump with joy, she said, “I can’t guarantee Nia and Winn will, though. And certainly not J’onn. Although if we do get a food truck that serves meat…”

“ _Now_ you’re talking! That’s a great idea. I’ll put it on the list.” Maggie’s mood had seemed to skyrocket. “Okay, well, find Nia and Winn and tell them they have no choice but to join us. I don’t care if I’m not technically their boss right now. Tell them they owe me.”

“For what?” Lucy asked, but Maggie was already walking away, her phone pulled out and her fingers tapping away.

Maggie turned around briefly. “I don’t know. I’ll figure it out. I’m sending you an email with everything I need you to do before noon tomorrow. You’re the best!” She threw over her shoulder with a thumbs up.

Lucy rolled her eyes. Maggie was ridiculous. 

But she was also hard-working and had good intentions. And Lucy would never tell her this, but she’d do anything for her. 

Maggie had gotten her this job—even though it sucked ninety-nine percent of the time—and had made sure they hired Winn and Nia, too. And anyone who was willing to fight so hard for stuff like that was a pretty amazing person, in Lucy’s book.

That kind of person was hard to find in a small Midwest town like this. 

Lucy heard a ding from her pocket. A new email.

Damn, that girl was fast.

Lucy didn’t even bother to scan her eyes over it. Instead, she pocketed her phone again, knowing that Maggie would be sending at least five more emails of things she forgot to add.

So much for a relaxing Saturday.

Just as Lucy started to head back to her car, she heard rustling in the bushes right next to the City Hall building. And there was too much of it to be an animal. Hopefully.

“Uh, hello? Are you okay?” Lucy asked when she spotted a hand.

A weak, “Help,” escaped from between the leaves.

 _Dammit_ , Lucy thought. She was supposed to be home soon.

Lucy grabbed the hand and pulled—it was surprisingly easy to lift the person enough to untangle them. A guy, much younger than her, tumbled out of the bush and landed with an, “Oof,” on the concrete.

Lucy quickly snatched her hand back, trying to discern who this stranger was.

Surprisingly, he quickly popped up to his feet, his eyes wide. He didn’t even bother to get the twigs out of his hair before he spoke.

“I promise, I am not a trespasser. Nor a stalker.”

“Uh, okay?” Lucy laid her hand discreetly on her pocket, ready to take out her phone.

“I am looking for a Nia. She told me she worked here, but the building seems to be closed. The man inside was…not very nice. He yelled and kicked me out. I had to look through the windows, hence, the bush.” He pointed to it.

Lucy smiled. “Are you Brainy?”

The guy’s face lit up. “Yes! Yes. That is what my friends call me. How…how do you know me? I do not know you.”

“I’m friends with Nia.” She was started to understand why Nia wasn’t sure if the nickname was ironic or not.

“Oh, fantastic!” Brainy exclaimed. “Do you know where she is?”

“Not at the moment, no.” Lucy said, and Brainy’s face fell. “But tomorrow I know she’ll be at a concert.”

“A concert! That is wonderful. Which concert?” he asked.

“Freddy Spaghetti.”

“Huh. She has an interesting taste in music,” Brainy said, and it seemed that he was filing that piece of information away. And Lucy didn’t have time to tell him the whole story. Plus, it was funnier this way.

“Yeah, well, she’ll be there. I don’t know where it’ll be located yet, but she’ll be very happy to see you there, if you can make it.”

“Of course! Can you tell her that I would like to see her, too?”

“Sure,” Lucy said, even as she was thinking that it would be better as a surprise.

Especially if he didn’t end up making it. She didn’t want to get Nia’s hopes up for nothing.

***

“Maggie? You pulled me out of a budget slashing meeting for this, it had better be good.”

“J’onn, I don’t care if you hate what we do. I love it enough for both of us,” Maggie said into the phone around all the noise. It was bright and early on Sunday, the big day. “We’re gonna put on the Freddy Spaghetti concert, today, at five o’clock, on Lot 48.”

It was James’ idea, and it was the best one he’d had to date.

The only real problem Maggie had had was putting on the concert at a park. But, as James had pointed out, what if it wasn’t at a park?

The empty lot behind James’ house that had kickstarted their friendship and was the main reason Maggie’s on-hold Master Plan existed wasn’t technically a park yet. Unfortunately, it was a long way from being one.

But that meant it wasn’t closed.

Maggie heard J’onn groan. “You cannot do that.”

Maggie stood up straighter. “Watch me. We’re doing this, J’onn. With or without you.” She gripped the hammer she had in her hand and started banging it on the wooden stage that was already half built. “I’m hammering away,” she said, holding the phone closer to it to make sure he could hear.

She hung up on him after a few seconds when she didn’t hear a response.

Maggie hummed, pleased with herself. Now, back to work.

She found Lucy standing by the deflated bouncy house on her phone, waiting for it to fill with air.

Maggie had been planning on recruiting Lucy first, as it was then easier to convince Winn and Nia to come along, too. And she knew Lucy couldn’t say no to her, which was a huge plus.

“Lucy, after this, can you go pick up Freddy Spaghetti in your Mercedes? We need to give him the star treatment,” Maggie said.

Lucy didn’t look too happy about that but nodded. “Fine. But he had better be showered. That dude is notoriously funky.”

Maggie didn’t disagree.

“Nia! Winn! James! C’mere. Gather around,” Maggie yelled across the lot. Thankfully, they all heard her and headed over.

She was having a hard time not snickering at Winn’s sunscreen-lathered nose but just took a deep breath in and let it out. Everyone needed a good pep talk before an undertaking like this.

“It is way too early in the morning,” Nia grumbled, rubbing at her eyes as if all she wanted to do was go back to sleep.

Maggie clapped, mostly to get their attention and hype them up. “Alright. We’re gonna put on a show today. And it won’t make all the problems in our town disappear, but it will make a lot of people happy. Everybody ready?”

“Hell yeah!” Winn exclaimed just as James let out a half-hearted whoop of joy.

“Sure,” Nia supplied.

Lucy looked at her. “Do I have a choice?”

“Awesome.” That was the best Maggie was gonna get. “Also, I didn’t have a chance to get porta-potties, so the audience is going to have to use James’ house for bathrooms.”

Lucy let out a bark of laughter.

“Wait, aren’t we expecting two hundred people?” James asked.

“Uh…yeah. Hopefully,” Maggie said quickly. And, in order to avoid James’ complaints, she started fast-walking towards her next task she’d assigned herself. “Back to work, team!”

***

“That’s rough, buddy,” Winn said, clapping James on the shoulder.

Lucy snapped a picture. “Oh man, you should see your face right now. Hilarious. That is definitely being sent to the group chat,” she said to Winn and Nia.

“I only have one bathroom…” James murmured.

Nia crossed her arms over her stomach, thankful it wasn’t her house. That was the one thing that wasn’t horrible about today. She was trying not to let it get to her, but…

“What’s up, Nia? Why so blue?” Winn asked.

Nia finally tilted her head up. She shrugged. “Brainy—the guy I met at your party—hasn’t contacted me yet.” She saw Lucy look at her.

“Hey, Nia, don’t worry so much about it. I’m sure he’s trying,” Lucy said. She seemed to scan her eyes around the lot.

“We had such a great connection, though! And now he’s just…disappeared.”

Lucy sighed. “He hasn’t disappeared, I promise. In fact…I think he’ll be here, at the concert.”

Nia whipped her head around. She was definitely fully awake now. “What? Really? Wait, how do you know?”

Lucy shrugged and smirked. “Just a hunch.”

Nia narrowed her eyes. “Lucy, what did you do?” It was always a gamble, asking Lucy to help her out.

“What I do best. He’ll be here,” Lucy reassured her. “In the meantime,” she glanced at her phone, “I gotta go pick up a thirty-year-old man-child. I swear to god, if he even _breathes_ on my newly-upholstered seats…”

Nia was left with Winn as Lucy sauntered off; James had already gotten back to work. Or maybe he was going to get supplies to clean his bathroom.

“Winn, I need a distraction.”

Winn looped his arm around hers. “Well, lucky for you we’ve got about a million things to do for Maggie…”

***

“Okay, let’s talk Parks and Rec,” Alex said, the PowerPoint projected on the screen behind her.

The slide up there currently read:

_Further proposed cuts: Parks and Recreation Staff  
33% Park Security  
20 Maintenance Workers  
3 Support Staffers_

“This one’s a little complicated,” Alex continued, and J’onn’s mind was a bit preoccupied.

On the one hand, he was ecstatic about all these cuts, but he’d also had that phone call with Maggie earlier. 

Maggie was…a double-edged sword. She did most of the work around the office, but she loved the government way too much, was stubborn and, truthfully, a huge pain in J’onn’s ass.

She could not fight every battle put in front of her. Although she always tried.

Alex Danvers was more his style. A no-nonsense worker that didn’t bring feelings into her job, and she had been here all day snipping away at the government budget. It was becoming one of the top-five best days at work that J’onn had ever had.

Even though it was a Sunday. He would _never_ come into work on a Sunday, but today was special.

Alex pointed her pen at him. “Thanks to J’onn, the services budget had already been cut significantly. The best option is job cuts. Starting with…” she paused and pursed her lips. “Maggie Sawyer.”

J’onn let out the closest he’d ever come to a laugh. “No. No, no, no. If you fire Maggie, then you might as well get rid of the whole department.”

Alex sighed. “Look, I know how valuable she is, believe me. But…we’ve run out of options.”

“There are plenty of other options.”

“Like what?” Alex asked sternly, but before J’onn could answer—which would’ve taken him awhile as he could not come up with any plausible ones at the moment—she barreled through. “She makes the second highest salary in the department. That will go a long way.”

J’onn crossed his arms over his chest. This was going to make him look bad, but he had to make Alex understand. “I am telling you—it is not an option. Because of my political beliefs, Maggie does ninety-five-percent of the work.”

And, yes, he’d go on record to say that Maggie was a giant pain in the ass, but she was undoubtedly the hardest worker in the entire city government. There was no way she was getting out of here before him.

J’onn couldn’t believe he was about to say this, but… “So, you should lay me off. I would be content to be a casualty in this righteous war.”

Kara had not said anything during this segment of the meeting yet, but she seemed worried about Alex, who was becoming more tense and firmer to her stance with every word J’onn said.

“It’s precisely because of your beliefs that we need to keep you,” Alex pointed out as she stood up, her volume gradually increasing. “You would maintain fiscal responsibility after we’re gone.”

J’onn stood up, too, and matched her tone. “I strenuously object.”

Alex let out a sharp breath.

“Alex, maybe we could come back to this?” Kara suggested, laying a hand on her arm. “It’s been a long day. A little meditation might help to calm—”

“I don’t need meditation! I don’t…I’m sorry,” Alex rubbed at her forehead and closed her eyes for a second. “She’s…she’s gone, okay? We’re moving on.” She locked eyes with J’onn again. “Every department is losing a Maggie Sawyer, J’onn.”

“No, Alex, they are not. No other department has one to begin with.” He did not care that they were in a small room full of people from the other departments. They were all useless. Maggie, on the other hand… “Right now, she is single-handedly putting on some lousy concert for the city’s kids.”

Alex’s eyes widened, and even Kara’s focus was on J’onn now, too.

“She’s doing _what_?”

***

“Maggie, we are in trouble.”

Maggie spun around, almost slipping on the grass. “J’onn? What are you doing here? I didn’t think—”

“I told them.” He seemed worried, which was a pretty new look for him. “I told the state auditors that you were putting this on in an attempt to save some government jobs. It has been…a strange day. But they are right behind me.”

Maggie looked over his shoulder, and he was right.

Great.

There they were—Alex with her stupid sunglasses and her dumb clipboard and her weird suit—which, it was eighty-five degrees out, so why was she wearing one?—and Kara beside her, looking a lot less grumpy.

“Hey!” Kara said, her voice still chipper. Like they weren’t about to yell at them, which Maggie knew they were.

Maggie tried not to look at Alex, who was staring daggers at her through her sunglasses, somehow.

“Oh, hey guys! Didn’t think we’d see you here,” Winn replied as he and Nia came up behind her, not aware of the situation. Maggie quickly elbowed him to shut him up.

Kara walked right past them and hopped up the steps to the stage to address everybody. “Alright! Everybody, you are all _super_ amazing. You are what makes Pawnee great. I’m inspired by your efforts here today.”

Maggie looked around to see smiles on everyone’s faces except, of course, Alex’s.

“And now, my partner Alex wants to say something,” Kara finished.

With her hands on her hips, Alex popped the balloon. “Yeah, we’re shutting all this down.”

“What?” Nia squeaked. “You can’t shut it down before Brainy even gets here!”

The few people that had started to show up were starting to listen, too. Alex raised her voice. “The concert is cancelled, everyone.”

But Maggie was not about to let that happen. She’d put way too much work into it this past day and a half to see it fail. “No, here’s the thing, Danvers, is that it’s not cancelled. We’re putting it on. The stage is already built,” she gestured behind her as Alex looked skeptical, “everything was donated for free by local vendors, and everyone here believes that what we’re doing is essential.”

Alex chewed at her lip at that word choice, and Maggie tilted her head.

“So, what’s the problem?”

Alex tapped her foot on the ground, and Kara came back over to stand beside her. “Everything was free?” Maggie nodded. “Who set it all up?”

“We all did. Me, Lucy, James, Nia, Winn. They’ve been here since seven this morning.”

“And Maggie has been here longer than that,” James piped up. “She stayed up till midnight at my place last night and then woke me up at five. It’s been…a very long day.”

Alex looked around at all of them as if not quite believing what James had just said. 

“Freddy Spaghetti is already backstage, thanks to Lucy—”

“You’re welcome.”

Maggie ignored her. “—and we really need to start letting people set up their picnic blankets if we want to everything to start on time.”

Alex’s gaze was back on Maggie, now. She still seemed a little bit pissed about this whole thing, but Maggie knew she had no logical reason to cancel it. Plus, it wasn’t all anger in her expression. Something about it made Maggie feel like she was…impressed, or something.

Alex opened her mouth only to close it again. It only took another second before, “Okay. I guess you can…put it on.”

Maggie smiled. “Really?”

Alex shrugged, and Maggie could’ve sworn she saw a corner of her mouth quirk up. “Yeah. Concert is on.” She glanced down at the ground.

“Oh, this is gonna be so much fun!” Kara clapped her hands together. “Do you have extra picnic blankets?”

Maggie held her arm out. “Right over there,” she said, not able to keep a grin off her face. “Everyone else, you can start setting up and claiming spots. Freddy will be on in,” she checked her watch, “fifteen minutes.”

Instead of the familiar groans she was used to hearing following the bad news she usually had, she heard happy conversations flowing around the small crowd. It was a very nice change.

Maggie chanced one more glance at Alex, who was talking to J’onn now, before she went backstage to check on Freddy.

And in fifteen minutes on the dot, he was up on stage and doing his thing. Maggie peered out at the crowd of kids and their parents, and they were all having a blast singing along to some song about “yellow polka dot linguini.” Maggie didn’t even want to know the context.

“Hey.”

Maggie turned at the voice and wasn’t really surprised that it was Alex. 

But Maggie hadn’t decided if she was still pissed at her or not, so she just gave her a small nod before focusing back on the concert to make sure nothing went wrong. Alex stood beside her, but Maggie didn’t move.

It was silent except for the ukulele and kids screaming back lyrics at Freddy, and Maggie could also practically _hear_ Alex thinking about what to say to her. Like her gears were short-circuiting or something.

Finally, Maggie took pity on her.

“Why did you let me do this?” she asked.

Alex met her eyes. She didn’t have her clipboard anymore, so she stuck her hands in her pockets. She shrugged. “Well, I’m not a monster. I want the kids to have their concert. I can’t deprive them of music and, y’know, fun.”

“You gettin’ soft, Danvers?” Maggie quipped, and she couldn’t help a slight smirk.

“What? Pfft, no,” Alex replied, and Maggie swore her cheeks went a bit pink. “It’s just nice seeing…people happy.”

“Mm.” She glanced away and could still feel Alex’s eyes on her. “Your sister looks like she’s having fun.”

Kara was dancing with a group of little girls, making their own choreography to these dumb noodle songs.

“She always has fun. Everywhere. With everyone. It’s easy for her.”

“So, how do you two work together and not kill each other? ‘Cause it seems to me like you have nothing in common.”

“Oh, believe me, I do want to kill her eighty-percent of the time,” Alex said with an affectionate smile. “But we’re a good team. We used to slash budgets individually. When she would do it by herself, nothing would get done ‘cause she’s just too nice. And when I would do it by myself, I’d get death threats.” Maggie couldn’t help a laugh, mostly because she could definitely see that happening. Alex continued, “Together, it seems to work.”

Maggie could admit, they did balance each other out pretty well.

There was another long pause before Alex spoke again.

“You know, this is really great right now, Maggie, but…” she fully faced her. “There’s gonna be a lot of pain ahead. We have to cut thirty-three-percent of the—”

“Shh, no, just…” Maggie held a hand up. Normally, she would love to talk about work, but not right now. “Can you…stop? For a minute? Just for one moment, enjoy the fact that we provided a service for people, and not a cut.”

Alex expression shifted and softened.

“And they love it,” Maggie finished, watching the crowd. 

This was the best part of her job, hands down. It was hard work, getting things approved and organized and actually happening, but the payoff was worth it, every time. 

The two of them stood there, listening to the music for a minute. Maggie was trying not to think about tomorrow and the fact that she couldn’t go into the office because she didn’t have a job. But she would, again, soon. Hopefully.

“Oh, before I forget, J’onn told me to tell you not to be late tomorrow.”

Maggie whipped her head back around. “What?”

“Yeah, he made you the official Parks and Rec representative for the budget discussions.”

“Oh.” Maggie’s felt a smile tug at her lips. “Great. I have so many ideas.”

That seemed to amuse Alex. She nodded. “I’m sure.”

She’d have to find J’onn later and give him a hug, even though he’d strictly forbidden them three years ago. She had no idea why J’onn was willing to give up being the one to personally strip away their government services, but she wasn’t going to question it. 

“So, um,” Alex then said, “Winn likes video games, right?”

Maggie’s brow furrowed. Alex asked it casually, but the question was so far from what she thought would ever come out of Alex’s mouth that it took her a second to answer.

“Uh, yeah. Yeah, he does,” Maggie managed to get out. 

Why did she care? And how the hell did she know that? She’d only been here for a week.

Actually, it wasn’t that hard to figure out, now that Maggie thought about it. What with the fifty figurines scattered on his desk and the endless supply of merch from various games he liked to ramble on about.

“Okay, cool. I think I’m gonna go find him. And talk to him. About…that,” Alex said. 

“Okay?” Maggie said, not really sure why she wanted to talk to Winn in the first place. “Have fun?”

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” Alex gave her a little wave before heading off.

“Yeah, see you.”

Maggie stared at her back as she got further and further away, still racking her brain to figure out why—

Oh. 

It hit her, watching Alex flag down Winn and awkwardly attempt to start a conversation with him that maybe, just maybe, she was trying. Maggie didn’t know what had changed, but Alex was willing to try.

And that was all Maggie could ask for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)
> 
> i hope you liked it!! leave a comment or kudos if you want. i think im gonna make it a priority to fit in an alex pov in the next chapter, 'cause i think she has some thoughts she wants to share ;)
> 
> but also seriously, though, it would be great if you could tell me if you liked this. i followed the episode pretty closely on this chapter (and the other two, tbh), and from feedback i've gotten on my other sanvers fics i've concluded that readers actually like when you *don't* do that and make an au your own. so this is different for me. but i love the episode this chapter is based on (2x24), and i think from now on (unless I want to pay homage to a specific amazing episode of the show) I'll just stick to the bigger plot points. unless you all don't mind this way of doing it! idk! let me know! if you want :)


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